Reb Lisa's Message
Last Thursday I had the honor of co-leading the Interfaith Pride service, hosted by Faith Lutheran, and held at First Christian. We were nourished with messages of love, inclusivity, belonging. It was inspiring to hear personal stories of struggle, hope, and healing. We prayed and sang as one interconnected faith community. We acknowledged that the God we put our faith in is a God who loves unconditionally; the God that acknowledges infinite possibilities for expressing who we are, and the God that supports our choice to love without limits, because love is love is love.
From a Jewish perspective I shared the words of Jesse Gerwein, a member of my former Shul in Berkeley, Congregation Netivot Shalom. Jesse, who was 14 at the time, reminded us that, “One of God’s attributes is ‘Ein Sof’ or ‘the infinite.’ There is no box big enough to fit God inside. All of us are created b’tzelem Elohim, in God’s image. Therefore, we are God-like when we acknowledge that same place within us that is beyond categories and boxes.” In essence, God is non-binary.
As we come to the end of June, and celebrate our last Shabbat of Pride month, I share an important poem by Sara Stock Mayo that echoes the same sentiment.
Pride Shabbat Blessing from an Ally
Blessed are you Adonai our God
Who made us in your image
Which knows no race nor gender
nor sexual identity or orientation
Blessed is the word pride
Which is the consciousness
of one’s own dignity
To see oneself as completely whole in living
as they were created to be
Blessed is joy and pleasure in the physical, spiritual, emotional connection we feel
in relationship to another
Blessed is knowing and being and celebrating
Blessed is allyship
Truly seeing someone just as they are
And how they’ve told you they want to be seen
Blessed is allowing ourselves to be led
Blessed is allowing ourselves to follow
Blessed is the ability to transform, to allow for movement and possibility
To create and re-create who and what feels most authentic today and tomorrow and into the future knowing that the possibilities are endless
Blessed are you Adonai, who made me in your image which knows no form
Blessed is limitlessness